Today sucked

[Shield Arc]

But......what's that have to do with weldability?

Magnetism will throw the arc all over the place. I've seen it take the arc off 3/4-inch from where I wanted it. It will make the biggest mess while welding.

Do you have any of those welding magnets? If so place it on a piece of plate, and try to weld within an inch or 2 of the magnet, you'll see!

 

[RobertBrown]

Okay, thanks for the link. That explains beating vs. magnetism.

But......what's that have to do with weldability?

Ken

I was asking the same questions you wre while reading this.
This helped me undertand or got me closer to that point anyway
Arc blow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[deereman75]

Deerman, whats up bud! Have you tried different rod angles it will help sometimes, or is it blowin like an animal?

It was blowing out the back opposite the way I had the rod pointed. It was impossible to make anything but a mess with that. I will try again in a few hours. The good news is I will be upgrading from 40 to 250 cf tanks for my O/A torch. So if it still wont work, I have a giant gas welding tip that should take care of it. For an idea of the size of it, a 250 cf tank is the smallest that can run it. I think it is rated for something crazy like 3/8 or 1/2 single pass.

 

[undercut]

I was asking the same questions you wre while reading this.
This helped me undertand or got me closer to that point anyway
Arc blow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's a good link. I found the below link pretty useful:

How to Prevent Arc Blow | Lincoln Electric

 

[lostcause]

Okay, thanks for the link. That explains beating vs. magnetism.

But......what's that have to do with weldability?

Ken

another fun fact on welding and magnetism: i've never encountered it (that I noticed) but i have read that ferrous metals can also become magnetized by friction, such as a grain chute. the suggested method of welding such materials is with alternating current, as shieldarc noted.

 

[yomax4]

It was blowing out the opposite direction you were welding? You are draging the rod right? Sounds like Rod Angle? Also Arc force will only help you when you get the rod in too tight to the work. It will not help when you are too far away. Turn it on 1/4th of the way, Strike an arc and just lay it in there and let the rod consume itself without really moving much.. Really shouldn't blow. Magnets are bad yes but I have a hard time thinking you have some magnetised plate laying around.

 

[deereman75]

Strike an arc and just lay it in there and let the rod consume itself without really moving much..

Thats exactly what I was doing. I had the rod touching the puddle, and the arc shot out the back of the flux, the opposite direction I was pointing the rod. Anyways, I tried again a little while ago, and there was not much of an issue. It seemed as long as I welded towords the ground clamp, there was just a bit of blow at the start, as soon as I welded away from it, it was PITA. It might partly be the rods. They were sitting in my yard, under a tarp in an open box for about 2 months. Everything in my shop was. Most of it has a fine layer of rust. Good news is the longevity fired right up and worked like a champ. I say it passes the poor storage test. These lincoln rods gave me a lot of issues from the start (if you recall one of my past threads) I think they might have just been too wet for too long. I still have about 8# left of them. Last box of lincoln 7018 I buy. I see a rod oven build in the future.

 

[Ken45101]

Magnetism will throw the arc all over the place. I've seen it take the arc off 3/4-inch from where I wanted it. It will make the biggest mess while welding.

Aaaaaaaahh...... now we finally get to the bottom of this!

NOW I understand....and also understand why beating the heck out of it actually does some good.

Kind of like old radio gear sometimes acts up and behaves when you give it a hard slap :laughing:

(I also now have a good excuse for when my welds don't turn out perfect...the polar flux shifted :thumbsup

Ken

 

[bbrown4804]

Thats exactly what I was doing. I had the rod touching the puddle, and the arc shot out the back of the flux, the opposite direction I was pointing the rod. Anyways, I tried again a little while ago, and there was not much of an issue. It seemed as long as I welded towords the ground clamp, there was just a bit of blow at the start, as soon as I welded away from it, it was PITA. It might partly be the rods. They were sitting in my yard, under a tarp in an open box for about 2 months. Everything in my shop was. Most of it has a fine layer of rust. Good news is the longevity fired right up and worked like a champ. I say it passes the poor storage test. These lincoln rods gave me a lot of issues from the start (if you recall one of my past threads) I think they might have just been too wet for too long. I still have about 8# left of them. Last box of lincoln 7018 I buy. I see a rod oven build in the future.

I would say it's definitely a case of wet rods. What your describing is almost exactly what happened to to me last weekend. I had found a 10lb. box of 1/8" Eutectic 6010 rods in my shop and tried to use them. When you would try to use them they would strike, then either stick solid or if I could get it to initiate the arc, it would jump around while making a h3llish noise and arc would blow out the back of the rod. Like you, I tried all ranges of OCV and varies amperages with no success. After burning the first 2 inches of the rods it would clear up though. The same thing has also happened to a couple of the Lincoln Excalibur 7018-H4R 3/32" rods that I have left out for too long in the open and not heated them up before I used them (or tried to anyways:laughing.

 

[chad22]

I some how managed to flash myself, so now my eyes are burning

Know how that feels. I've got arc flashed before. It was a few years ago. Somehow the dang glass fell out of my welding helmet, right in the middle of a weld.

I burned my eyes so bad, I couldn't open my eyes for a few days. When I did try to open them, it hurt really bad.

Not to mention trying to find my way to the bathroom, when I couldn't see and then trying to actually use the toilet. That was an interesting time.

Hope your eyes are feeling better.

I had to put wet rags over my eyes to help cool them down. I kept the wet rags over my eyes, while trying to sleep as well. Though didn't get much sleep as my eyes were burning.

At least the rags kept them a little cooler.

Chad

 

[undercut]

Know how that feels. I've got arc flashed before. It was a few years ago. Somehow the dang glass fell out of my welding helmet, right in the middle of a weld.

That's just crazy! :confused2:

I burned my eyes so bad, I couldn't open my eyes for a few days. When I did try to open them, it hurt really bad.

Was your helmet an auto dimming model?

 

[Shield Arc]

I think they might have just been too wet for too long. I still have about 8# left of them. Last box of lincoln 7018 I buy. I see a rod oven build in the future.

OK kid, take one of those wet 7018 rods. Place it in your stinger, and stick it to the base metal. Don't even try to weld! Just stick the rod to the metal, and watch the water boil out of the rod. Hold the rod there for a few seconds, break the connection, and weld with that rod and see if there is a difference.

(I also now have a good excuse for when my welds don't turn out perfect...the polar flux shifted :thumbsup

Now you are starting to catch on. As many years as I've been welding, I have every excuse in the book memorized! The excuse I use the most is, the sun was in my eyes!

Know how that feels. I've got arc flashed before. It was a few years ago. Somehow the dang glass fell out of my welding helmet, right in the middle of a weld.

I burned my eyes so bad, I couldn't open my eyes for a few days. When I did try to open them, it hurt really bad.

Not to mention trying to find my way to the bathroom, when I couldn't see and then trying to actually use the toilet. That was an interesting time.

Hope your eyes are feeling better.

I had to put wet rags over my eyes to help cool them down. I kept the wet rags over my eyes, while trying to sleep as well. Though didn't get much sleep as my eyes were burning.

At least the rags kept them a little cooler.

Chad

Next time this happens and you don't want to go to the Doctors, which I highly suggest, because they have great stuff for flash burns! Take a potato and slice it, place the potato slices over each eye with a rag full of ice chips on top of the potato slices.

 

[yomax4]

Yep, The potato seems to work well. I crush it and squeeze out the juice and drop it in my eyes. Not as good as what the Doc has but it will get you some sleep.

 

[deereman75]

Know how that feels. I've got arc flashed before. It was a few years ago. Somehow the dang glass fell out of my welding helmet, right in the middle of a weld.

I burned my eyes so bad, I couldn't open my eyes for a few days. When I did try to open them, it hurt really bad.

Not to mention trying to find my way to the bathroom, when I couldn't see and then trying to actually use the toilet. That was an interesting time.

Hope your eyes are feeling better.

I had to put wet rags over my eyes to help cool them down. I kept the wet rags over my eyes, while trying to sleep as well. Though didn't get much sleep as my eyes were burning.

At least the rags kept them a little cooler.

Chad

It wasnt bad at all. I have had worse. It was just as I was dropping the half burned rod out of the stinger, it hit the table, and made a little spark. I saw spots for a few mins, and they itched for an hour or 2, nothing too bad.

 

[deereman75]

OK kid, take one of those wet 7018 rods. Place it in your stinger, and stick it to the base metal. Don't even try to weld! Just stick the rod to the metal, and watch the water boil out of the rod. Hold the rod there for a few seconds, break the connection, and weld with that rod and see if there is a difference.

I was doing that. I didnt see anything boil out. I hold it there for atleast 10 secs. It might be something about the inverter though, as it seemed to make more differnce with the old lincoln. (also I didnt get the inverter stuck rod sound, it was silent) I might plug in the tombstone, and try drying the rods with it, I know that works.

 

[chad22]

That's just crazy! :confused2:

Was your helmet an auto dimming model?

I know. Thinking back on it. I remember taking the glass out to clean it because somehow it got dirty between the glass and the plastic in front of the glass.

I guess I didn't secure it good enough and that's why it decided to fall out.

The way the glass was secured in there didn't seem right from the start. Instead of having the clip on the inside of the helmet, the clip to hold the glass in was on the outside.

The one I have now has the clip on the inside and there's no way for it to fall out. It could only fall inwards.

It was just a regular old helmet no auto dimming.

Chad

 

[chad22]

Next time this happens and you don't want to go to the Doctors, which I highly suggest, because they have great stuff for flash burns! Take a potato and slice it, place the potato slices over each eye with a rag full of ice chips on top of the potato slices.

Thanks

Hope it doesn't happen again, but I'm sure it will sometime. And if it does, I'll keep that in mind.

Chad

 

[chad22]

It wasnt bad at all. I have had worse. It was just as I was dropping the half burned rod out of the stinger, it hit the table, and made a little spark. I saw spots for a few mins, and they itched for an hour or 2, nothing too bad.

Glad it wasn't too bad. :thumbsup:


Chad

 

[undercut]

Yep, The potato seems to work well. I crush it and squeeze out the juice and drop it in my eyes. Not as good as what the Doc has but it will get you some sleep.

Never heard of using potatos / potato juice before. Wonder what's the rational behind that .... Thanks for the tip. Hope never to have to use this one.